Saaien Tist

Ryo Sakai reminded me a couple of weeks ago about Simon Sinek's excellent TED talk "Start With Why - How Great Leaders Inspire Action"; which inspired this post... Why do I do what I do?

The way data can be analysed has been automated more and more in the last few decades. Advances in machine learning and statistics make it possible to gain a lot of information from large datasets. But are we starting to rely to much on those algorithms? Different issues seem to pop up more and more. For one thing, research in algorithm design has enabled many more applications, but at the same time makes these so complex that they start to operate as black boxes. Not only to the end-user who provides the data, but even for the algorithm developer.

"I'll do Angelina Jolie". Never thought I'd say that phrase while talking to well-known Belgian cartoonists, and actually be taken serious.

Backtrack about one year. We're at the table with the crème-de-la-crème of Belgium's cartoon world (Zaza, Erwin Vanmol, LECTRR, Eva Mouton, ...), in a hotel in Knokke near the coast.  "We" is a gathering of researchers covering genetics, bioinformatics, ethics, and law. The setup: the Knokke-Heist International Cartoon Festival.